Recovery from a severe burn out

“For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” (2 Cor 4:5)

I was doing for over 30 years all kind of leadership tasks in the church of Jesus, when a concurrence of events led to a complete mental crash. I entered unexpectedly and unwantedly a period of burn-out that would last several years.

I was relieved of my job as fulltime pastor and I was obliged to stop my involvement in Christian Flanders. I did not preach anywhere for over a year, although I had been doing this for years throughout the whole of Flanders. I even felt written off by God and fellow human beings. The civil society declared that I was incapable to work.

Given up by the medical doctors in Belgium, but not by God

HEAL THE SICK Luke 10:9

This is one of the assignments with which Jesus commissioned his disciples to go out into the cities of Israel. It is still valid for us who are His disciples today. Ela took this up and sent us some of her testimonies (for which we are grateful!):

I have an acquaintance. She was given up. She is 43 and had a cerebral aneurysm. It started bleeding twice. As a result she was paralysed on one side and nearly blind in one eye. No one in Belgium dared to perform surgery.

I prayed for her for a long time. After many months I went back to visit her. When she answered the door, I could hardly believe what I saw: